Lupus Science & Medicine
Table 1 Participant characteristics
cSLE group (n= 56)
Control group (n= 43)
Demographic characteristics Age at study visit, years
16.0 (13.5–16.5)
16.0 (14.0–17.0)
Age at SLE diagnosis, years
14 (12–15)
–
Female sex
48 (86)
35 (81)
Ethnicity Asian
27 (48) 15 (27)
7 (16)
European
24 (56)
Black or African Latin American
9 (16)
4 (9) 3 (7)
2 (4) 3 (4)
Other*
5 (12)
Disease characteristics Disease duration, months
10.6 (2.0–14.1)
– – –
Disease activity at visit (SLEDAI-2K) Active disease at visit (SLEDAI-2K >4) Adjusted mean SLEDAI-2K, mean (SD)
2.5 (2.0–5.5)
15 (27) 4.7 (3.8)
-
Disease damage (SDI >0)
5 (9) 1 (2)
– – – – – – – – – –
NPSLE diagnosis Lupus nephritis
21 (38) 39 (70) 12 (21) 10 (18) 30 (54) 56 (100) 10 (18)
Low C3/C4
Anti-phospholipid antibody positive Abnormal conventional brain MRI
DMARD use† (current)
Hydroxychloroquine use (current)
Rituximab exposure (ever)
Intravenous cyclophosphamide exposure (ever)
1 (2)
Current glucocorticoid use
23 (41)
Current prednisone-equivalent dose, mg Cumulative prednisone-equivalent dose, g
2.1 (0.6–7.0) 2.9 (0.6–6.9)
– –
Intravenous steroid use (ever)
14 (25)
Continuous variables are listed as median (IQR) and categorical variables are listed as n (%), unless otherwise specified. *Includes Arab/Middle Eastern, Indigenous, Pacific Islander and multiethnic. †DMARD includes mycophenolate analogues or azathioprine or methotrexate. cSLE, childhood-onset SLE; DMARD, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs; NSPLE, neuropsychiatric SLE; SDI, Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology (SLICC/ACR) Damage Index; SLEDAI-2K, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index 2000.
RESULTS Participant demographic and disease characteristics Participants included 56 children with cSLE (86% female, mean age=15.1 years ± SD 1.8) and 43 healthy controls (81% female, mean age=15.1 years ± SD 1.7). cSLE patients had a median disease duration of 10.6 months (IQR 2.0–14.1); 15 (27%) had active disease. Disease damage was present in five patients (9%), comprised of six items in renal (n=3), neuropsychiatric (n=1, seizures), skin (n=1, extensive scarring/panniculum) and ocular (n=1, cataracts) domains. Considering major organ involvement, 21 (38%) had lupus nephritis and one
injury markers, cSLE disease features and cytokines using Spearman correlations. Third, we examined differences in cSLE features between those with and without high levels of brain injury markers (any of the three marker levels falling above the 90th percentile). In these analyses, we accounted for multiple comparisons with Bonferroni correction. There was no missing data. One cSLE patient with low IQ <80 was omitted from the CD analyses due to previously undi- agnosed developmental delay. All analyses were performed using Stata/BE V.18.
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Mwizerwa O, et al . Lupus Science & Medicine 2026; 13 :e001922. doi:10.1136/lupus-2025-001922
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